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Dec. 1, 1959 Filed Sept. a, 1955 R. W. WOLKE TICKET CONTAINER AND ADJUSTABLE TICKET DIVIDER AND INDICATOR THEREFOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 o 0 0 0 0 0 o 97/, C

INVENTOR 1 A RAYMOND W WOLKE BY L-c m,

ATTORNEY.

Dec. 1, 1959 R. w. WOLKE 2,915,189

TICKET CONTAINER AND ADJUSTABLE TICKET DIVIDER AND INDICATOR THEREFOR Filed Sept. 8. 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 VII/(Ill all!!! rill! :Iwoentoz RAYMOND WWOLKE United States Patent TICKET CONTAINER AND ADJUSTABLE TICKET DIVIDER AND INDICATOR THEREFOR Raymond W. Wolke, Cleveland, Ilhio Application September 8, 1953, Serial No. 379,028

4 Claims. (Cl. 211-) This invention relates to reserved space reserve sales tickets and to a ticket sales apparatus designed for use in storing and dispensing such reserved space sales tickets for issuance by railroads and other passenger transport concerns giving to their passengers, for a stipulated consideration, the right to travel in reserved spaces in a railroad car or other vehicle between travel points.

The present invention which embodies certain improvements upon the ticket storing and separating means disclosed in my prior application filed May 10, 1953, Ser. No. 341,391, of which this application is a continuationin-part, will be described particularly with reference to its use by railroads operating Pullman or other like cars or coaches having reserved spaces or accommodations, such as roomettes, compartments, berths, seats, etc., the right to the use of which between travel points is sold by the railroad to passangers paying a charge therefor in addition to a transportation charge, although the invention may also be used by the operators of buses, marine vessels, aircraft, and other passenger transporting vehicles having like accommodations to be sold to their patrons.

The general object of the invention, like that disclosed in my aforesaid application Ser. No. 341,391 is to provide a novel and simplified system of reserved space tickets, and method of, and means for supplying such tickets with less delay to passengers and less time and labor on the part of the carrier employee making the sale, to reduce the possibility of duplicate sales, and to eliminate the possibility of errors, and misread tickets dut to carelessness or poor writing on the part of the employee, thus establishing a desirable and better relationship between the patron and the carrier and at the same time reducing the carriers cost of operation in conducting this work.

The particular object of the present invention is to provide separators or dividers and improved means for connecting the same with the containers whereby the construction is further simplified, the cost of construction of such parts reduced, and the working operations in dispensing the tickets facilitated.

In the present day normal or conventional operation of conducting transactions of this character the patron purchases from the carrier the right to transportation in a carrier vehicle from a starting point to a destination point and at the same time puchases the right to use a reserved space in the vehicle, which may be a certain space in the car of a train, such as Pullman upper or lower berth, a roomette, bedroom, compartment, drawing room or duplex room, a Pullman parlor car seat or a railroad parlor car or coach seat, for which varying charges are made in addition to the transportation charges.

The instrumentalities used in present practice by a railroad in carrying out these operations consist (1) of a transportation ticket entitling the person to travel on a train, which may be a certain train, including one or 2,915,189 Patented Dec. 1, 1959 more Pullman and/or railroad cars having reservation spaces, (2) a diagram chart of each such car showing the reserved accommodations with spaces to receive data to be inserted by the agent respecting each sale made, and (3) a Pullman or other ticket having spaces to receive similar data with respect to the sale made. Each transportation ticket may consist of any desired number of detachable sections but the Pullman or other reservation ticket ordinarily used consists of three detachable sections, to wit, an agents coupon or stub, which is retained by the ticket seller, a coupon portion which is taken up by the train conductor, and a coupon portion which is given by the conductor to the patron as his receipt. The transportation ticket may or may not be provided with spaces to be filled in or punched to give necessary information. The reservation ticket, however, has spaces in which entries must be made by the ticket seller. There are 12 to 28 spaces to be filled out on the conventional'Pullman ticket, in addition to the entries made on the car diagram chart as each sale is made. The present method of making a sale is for the ticket seller to request the desired space from a diagram chart, either by telephone or direct personal request, or seek the space on the proper diagram chartvisually if the diagram chart is at hand for his inspection. After finding that the desired space is available, the ticket number of the Pullman or other ticket is entered on the diagram chart at the proper place and the spaces on the Pullman or other ticket filled out by hand. At the proper time before the train departs the diagram chartvor a duplicate thereof is turned over to the train conductor for his information as to sales made and to enable him to sell available spaces not sold by the ticket clerk or agent. A transaction of this character often involves considerable time and labor on the part of the ticket seller and loss of time as well as inconvenience to the patron, and errors are often made by the clerk resulting in duplicate sales being made. The present invention is designed to avoid these and other objections to the above described universally employed present system of selling reservation spaces in the vehicles of railroads and other public carriers and to facilitate the issuance of the tickets and to reduce the amount of time, labor and costs involved to the minimum.

In the accompanying drawing exempliticately showing certain means for carrying out my invention into practical eifect,

Fig. 1 is a front end elevation, partly in longitudinal section taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 2, of a ticket holding and dispensing apparatus and tickets stacked therein in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the same;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the same taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a detail fragmentary section through one of the containers, showing one of the dividers and associated indicating arm; a

Fig. 5 is a perspective View on an enlarged scale of a portion of a container showing features of construction of the container, separator and indicator disclosed particularly in Fig. 4; 1

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section on line 66 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a vertical section on line 77 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 5, showing the application to a container of a modified form of separator and indicator;

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig; 6 of the portion shown in Fig. 8;

310-10 of Fig. 8; and

Fig. 11 is a top plan view of one of the separators or dividers.

In carrying my invention into practice I employ in addition to the first class transportation ticket (not shown), commonly employed to give the patron the right to travel on a vehicle or train equipped with reserved spaces between specified starting and destination points, for which the patron pays the proper charge, a set of space sales tickets A, value tickets B, containers C in which the tickets A are stored for sale and dispensation at the carriers ticket office, a movable rack D or ing a desired number of the containers C in a regular order and shiftable to bring into selling position containers holding stacks of tickets printed for sale on predetermined days of a week, month or other calendar day period, and a table, counter or other suitable support E on which the rack is mounted for travel to enable containers at the expiration of day-sales periods to be successively removed and others shifted along the rack to bring the containers in successive order from day to day to the sales point or station SS which may be located at one side, or end of the table, where a ticket seller sits or stands to conduct the sales operations. The containers, of which seven in number are shown in the present instance, may be of any suitable form, but are herein shown as narrow, elongated, drawer-like, channeled or trough-shaped receptacles having each a bottom wall, shallow side walls and front and rear end walls and open at the top to allow the coupon portions of the tickets A to project upward therefrom for ready inspection, insertion and removal of the tickets. These containers which may be similar to card index file holders or drawers, and which are numbered 1 to 7, inclusive, are mounted side by side in parallel relation on and transversely of the rack in regular order from left to right or right to left with one side of the foremost container facing the ticket sellers side of the table or counter E, and are intended to respectively hold groups or stacks of space reservation tickets A dated and valid for use on successive days. The seven holders 1-7, arranged as shown in the drawings, are designed to hold tickets dated to successively cover days for a period of one week, although any number of them may be used to cover any desired longer period. Each container may hold a stack or row of groups of tickets amounting in all to 600 or 700 tickets, more or less, to cover all space accommodations of a vehicle or vehicles or trains departing from a starting terminal or station on a given day. The containers and/or indicators used in connection therewith may bear dates corresponding to the dates of the tickets stored therein. The arrangement is thus such that the containers serve as a movable calendar, so that at the close of any working day the first container (as container No. 1) positioned at the sales point and from which the tickets dated that day have been sold, may be removed and the rack shifted to bring the next succeeding container (container No. 2) into selling position, after which another container filled with tickets dated a day later than the tickets stored in container No. 7 which has been removed is applied to take the place vacated by container No. 7 and maintain a full weeks supply of tickets stored in the containers on the rack. By this means todays tickets will always be in the same position (the selling point) on the table.

The groups of tickets A held in a container and those applying to the cars of different trains may be separated in appropriate order by metal dividers or separators G, Fig. 2, which are inserted therein and which project upward to a level slightly above the top edges of the tickets. Each of these dividers or separators comprises, as shown in Figs. 16, 17, 18 and 22, front and rear body plates g, g, Fig. 17, and filler plates g g arranged between and spacing said body plates apart, the plates being united by rivets g Fig. '18, or other suitable fastening means. The outer side edges of the plates -g, g are beveled and arranged relatively to the outer side edges of the plates g 3* to provide guide grooves g These grooves are adapted for sliding and holding engagement with rows of closely spaced bosses or instruck projections g, g stamped or otherwise formed on the side walls of the container C adjacent their upper and lower edges. The bosses of the rows are similarly spaced longitudinally of the container and arranged in vertical alinement so that a separator may be slidably inserted into or removed from the container at any point in the length thereof and when inserted will be held in its applied position. The above described construction of the separators and containers permits of the ready application, removal and use of any required number of separators properly spaced apart to separate and hold different groups of tickets in position and the retention of the separators in place without the use of latch devices or other troublesomeand expensive holding means and in such manner as to facilitate the operations of assembling or disassembling tickets and separators. Carried by each separator is a signal or indicator H comprising an upright bendable and axially twistable staff It having a laterally bent upper end of arm k adapted to hold a sign plate It giving necessary information relative to the applicable group of tickets held by the separator in the container. The staff h and arm 11 are formed of a core of some durable flexible material about which is spirally wound a tube of resilient wire forming a controlling spring. The lower end of the staff is clamped between the filler plates g 3 while arm h and sign element h are arranged to normally extend longitudinally of the container and to horizontally overhang the group of tickets. The arm is adapted to be bent or twisted on itself universally in any direction to dispose the sign plate at a desired reading angle to the vertical and it is adapted to be swung with the sign plate transversely of the container against the resistance of the wire spring out of overhanging position with relation to the group of tickets out of display position to allow access to the group of tickets and upon being released will swing, under reaction of the tensioned spring, back to display position. When in display position the sign plate It will prevent upward displacement of the group of tickets. When the plate h is out of display position indication will thereby be given that its supporting arm or the spring is broken or has otherwise become casually inoperative or has been tampered with and requires attention.

Figs. 8, 9 and 10 show another type of separator or divider G which may be used in place of the dividers G or in connection therewith for special indicating purposes. This type of divider G comprises a body formed of riveted body and filler plates g g* which are similar in construction to the plates g, g, g g of the divider G except that the plates g g are arranged to form an oblong rectangular socket g to receive the reduced or tongue portion k of a T-shaped blade-like indicating or signal member H. This signal member may be formed as a whole of metal or a synthetic material and is removable from the separator to allow a different signal member to be used in its place. As the indicator here is a unit separate from the separator body, difierent indicators may be used in connection with the separator body to give any information desired with respect to tickets in the container. As shown, this type of indicator permits of the application at the top of the indicator of a cardor slip H cemented or otherwise secured thereto, and bearing desired information.

By the use of the separators or dividers herein dis closed, and the disclosed means for adjustably and detachably securing the same in the containers, the cost-of construction of these parts is considerably reduced, as cornpared with'prior constructions using latches for adjustably securing the separators in position, and greater con venience and facility afiorded in handling the parts in their assemblage and disassemblage and in dispensing the tickets.

While the present instrumentalities disclosed herein for carrying the invention into practical efiect are preferred it is to be understood that they are merely exemplificative, and that their equivalents, falling within the scope of the appended claims, may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a ticket storing and dispensing apparatus of the character described, the combination of a shallow, relalatively long and narrow container, groups of tickets having separable stub portions fitted in said container and coupon portions projecting upwardly therefrom, means supporting and movably mounting said container for longitudinal travel to bring any one of the groups of tickets to a selling position, separators arranged in the container between and separating the ticket groups from each other, each separator being guidedly connected with the side walls of the container to hold it from movement longitudinally of the container while permitting movement thereof vertically of the container, and an indicator carried by each separator comprising a staff supported by the separator and provided with a resilient arm extending longitudinally of said receptacle and having a sign plate carried thereby and overhanging a group of tickets disposed in the receptacle and said resilient arm being adapted to be moved under pressure sideward of the receptacle to permit access to be obtained to the group of tickets over which it normally overhangs.

2. In a ticket storing and dispensing apparatus of the character described, the combination of a shallow, relatively long and narrow container for holding groups of tickets having portions of a size to fit in said container and a coupon portion to project upwardly out of said container, means supporting and movably mounting said container for longitudinal travel to bring any one of the groups of tickets to a selling position, said container having substantially parallel longitudinally extending side walls said side walls being provided with longitudinally positions with respect to each other and engaging with.

said pairs of guide means respectively so as to be held by said guide means against movement longitudinally of said container while permitting movement the'reofvertically of the container, and an indicator carried by each separator comprising a statf supported by the separator and provided with a resilient arm extending longitudinally of said receptacle and having a sign plate carried thereby and overhanging a group of tickets disposed in the receptacle and said resilient arm being adapted to be moved under pressure sideward of the receptacle to permit access to be obtained to the group of tickets over which it normally overhangs.

3. A ticket storing and dispensing means according to claim 2, and in which said stafl. and arm are comprised of a universally flexible and resilient coiled spring.

4. A ticket storing and dispensing apparatus according to claim 2, and in which said guide means each comprise pairs of inwardly extending projections on the inner faces of said side walls, the projections of each pair being located substantially vertically relative to each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 664,501 Rand Dec. 25, 1900 948,378 Prouty Feb. 8, 1910 1,217,291 Farrington Feb. 27, 1917 1,285,394 Robinson Nov. 19, 1918 1,676,373 Woltz July 10, 1928 1,731,828 Salt Oct. 15, 1929 1,874,950 Forsyth Aug. 30, 1932 1,954,646 Pratt Apr. 10, 1934 1,984,485 Kotcher Dec. 18, 1934 2,043,532 Dubilier June 9, 1936 2,563,159 Clark Aug. 7, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 958,416 France Sept. 12, 1949 

